First Birthday

We had our family over for dinner to celebrate E's first birthday. We kept it simple with sandwiches and pizza. I didn't have it in me to do a big first birthday party (sorry E !)

When you can't talk and you have older siblings you don't get much say in your birthday cake. Xavier and Wes decided that Elliott needed a Super Why Carrot Applesauce cake. So that's what we made. I had plans to make a really need shaped cake, but, well, it just didn't turn out. This is still cute though. And Elliott seemed to like it. Die-hard Super Why fans will notice though that due to my computer running out of blue ink at the worst time ever, Super Why printed out mostly yellow and purple instead of green and blue. (It really just wasn't my day when it came to the cake making).

Elliott liked his smash cake. He only ended up actually eating a few bites though. 

After a quick bath in the sink and some jammies, the boys helped (took over) Elliott open a few gifts.

E's actual birthday was the next day. I put up a birthday curtain for our little guy. My friend Sara's mom used to do this on her kids' bedroom doors when it was their birthday. I always thought it was soooo cool. My boys seemed to like it too.

X and Wes polished off the rest of the cake for breakfast and we sang Happy Birthday again. 

That afternoon Elliott played with the box of his new toy. 

While Xavier completely took over the actual toy. We had to have a little talk about who's birthday gift it was.

Happy Birthday E Baby!!!! We love you :)

Elliott is ONE !!!

An Interview with Wesley

We had a little fun tonight interviewing our favorite 2 1/2 year old  :)

What is your name? Wes-wey Joseph
How old are you? Let me go see what time it is
What is your favorite color? "Geen"
How many toes do you have? They are all mine. These are my feets to walk.

Where do you live? At your house

Where do you like to go?  Playground
And after the playground?  Aunt Donna's to see Tallulah puppy and Chuck
What do you like to do at the playground? Go down the slide
What do you like to eat? "Geen" spaghetti and "geen" beans
What toys do you like to play with? My light up shoes
What do you like to watch on TV? Diego
What kind of ice cream do you like? Chocolate
What makes you happy? Birthday cake
What makes you sad? Fighting with each other and people going in time out
Who is your best friend? Xavier
What is your favorite thing to do? Put Xavier in timeout
What do you like to do outside? Ride my new "geen" bike
Where do you want to work when you get bigger? When I get big I can have coffee.
What kind of animals are at the zoo? Lion, Froggie, Mommy Froggie and a Baby Froggie, and You
How old is daddy? 2 years old
How old is mommy? 2..3..and you old
How do you get to the pool? Get in the car, turn the key on, and drive drive drive and then the pool. 
How can you be a helper? make coffee and tea, and green tea
What do you do after you make tea? I sing Little Einsteins
What is love? Love means this (goes and gives daddy a hug)

And he didn't sit still for a SECOND of this interview. He was tumbling around all over the rug while talking to us. Ha! That's our sweet little boy :)

Homesick

Whew....I think I'm finally all caught up on my blogging. And if not, well, I'm tired and I don't remember anything else so that's pretty much all you're gonna get - ha!

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Last night Xavier was going to spend the night with my parents. We told him at 11am that he was going at noon. So of course for the next hour he told me ever 20 seconds that he was ready to go to grandmas. He loves it there. When i dropped him off he said "mommy, you can go home now" and wanted me gone so he could have his one on one time with grandma. They had a blast all afternoon, refilling her coffee trays, making angel food cake, going to the ice cream store with the neighbors, playing in grandpa's sprinklers, etc. Before bed we did "Face time" with X. Walter, Wes, and I were all together talking to him.

And something about that Face time call was just too much for him. When we finished up our talk and got off the phone X told grandma he was done eating his snack, his tummy hurt, and he was ready to go home. He told grandma, "My mommy misses me."  She tried to change his mind, but nothing worked.

My little boy was homesick after seeing us all on Face time.

So, my mom drove him home and I put him to bed here.

There is a part of me that is happy that he wanted to be with us and feels such comfort in our home. But the other part was kind of aggravated because I was enjoying the break from X and Wes arguing and having one less child to care for for a little bit. But it just wasn't meant to be.....

I tell ya, just when I think I might have this kid figured out, he always seems to change it up on me.

Power Posting

It's been over a month since I've posted. There's been lots going on. I'm so behind! The plan (plan being the optimal word) is to do a marathon of postings the next few days. I'm gonna back date them to keep chronologically correct.

So for those that care, make sure to go back to the start of June so you don't miss anything!

Ready.....set.....here we go!!!!

Another Photo Dump

Catching up on all this posting is leaving me a bit tapped out on the fancy storytelling. So I bring you yet another photo dump of random stuff.

The many faces of my boys. I swear the 2nd one of Wes looks like a mugshot!

Wes decided one night that he wanted to take "big ol bunny" to bed with him. Ha! He looks tiny compared to that stuffed animal monstrosity.

I made this fruit pizza for our bible study dessert recently. YUM YUM!!! It was so good.

The sign of a fun morning.  

Xavier was so tired one afternoon he fell sound asleep while eating an apple and peanut butter. Can you see the piece of apple hanging out of the side of his mouth??

Elliott looking a little fearful. He's smart. Wesley was pulling the wagon, and you just never know what might happen!

Elliott LOVES to play with the little kitchen. He's very partial to chewing on the celery and waving forks around. 

Wes tried to convince me to get him this soccer ball chair the other day while we were at a furniture store. It was cute, but about the last thing I needed to bring home. He kept saying "We can take this to our house mommy."

I'm in the process of redoing my bedroom from top to bottom (more on that soon). I was going to use this Eiffel tower lamp from my grandma, but it was too tall for the space. So X decided it would make a great garage for his cars. He had them hanging all over it.

Elliott on the Move

At right around 10 months old Elliott started crawling. This was an amazing accomplishment for him because he had become so frustrated with just sitting somewhere (read: lots of whining and crying). Once he figured out he could move himself his world, and his mood, greatly increased. A few weeks later, right as he turned 11 months Elliott started walking. This has delighted Elliott (and mommy) beyond words. He walks all over the house now, back and forth with his arms in the air or waving an object around. He loves it!!!! And it's so great to see him happily exploring.

Here's a little video collection of his progress....

 

And unfortunately when you have a big brother who's feeling sassy sometimes this happens. Poor little E.

VBS

This month Xavier attended 2 different Vacation Bible Schools. Each one was a week long, 3 hours each morning. This was the first time he attended any kind of structured program for 5 days in a row. He was tired at the end of the week, but he had SUCH a good time. He came home every day singing and dancing and with a handful of crafts he had made. I love that he had so much fun learning about God!

Each VBS had a closing program. So cute! (He is the one dead center in this picture with the gray shorts on). The first VBS theme was SonRise and they turned the church into a wilderness campsite complete with artificial Christmas trees!

The second VBS was at the church where X goes to preschool. He was excited to have some of his preschool friends in his group. The theme there was Sky and everything was decorated with clouds and airplanes and balloons. (Terrible picture since it reflected off the stage lighting, but he's the one in front in the black shorts)

Wesley was chomping at the bit to be able to go to VBS with Xavier. He just couldn't understand that he wasn't old enough. I felt bad for him, so we kept talking about when he turns 4 he will get to go to VBS. He did get in on a few pictures and the closing program.

I am so thankful to all the volunteers at these churches that put so much time and effort into make this an awesome week for all the kids. They definitely had an impact on Xavier. He's been walking around the house singing "It's gonna be a cool cool summer...learning to trust in Jesus!" and many other songs from the week.

A Much Needed Retreat

This past weekend I had a much needed (and frankly, much deserved!) weekend away at the lake with NO kids. Yes, you read that right. This was the first time in over 4 1/2 years that I left the house for 36 hours with absolutely ZERO children.

AND IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Love my kids and all, but gosh, it was nice to say have a little renewal :)

My time away was a planning retreat for the steering committee of my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. This coming year I am the MOPPETS Coordinator for the group. I will be in charge of organizing about 100 kids into childcare rooms, finding childcare workers, making a schedule for the kiddos with curriculum and crafts, and various other things as well. This is all so their mamas can attend our 2 hour MOPS meetings twice a month. It's a big undertaking for me but I'm excited.

We were fortunate to be able to have our planning retreat at a beautiful lake house owned by family members of another steering team member. Not a bad place to spend some time, eh!

The weekend was an amazing and perfect mixture of relaxation, work, and prayer and spiritual connecting. I am really looking forward to working with these ladies this year. We figured out that between the 12 of us we have 26 kids - wow!

So when mama goes away it takes a small team of people to fill in. And I was very grateful for the help. Walter stayed home with Xavier and Wesley, while Elliott spent the weekend with my mom and dad. We decided this would be easiest so that Walter could take the boys to do some fun things that are just harder to do when you have all 3. They went swimming, and did a camp out with some friends. Poor Elliott ended up getting a cold while he was with my parents. He was totally content to be snuggled and loved on by them, but he was very congested and had a really hard time sleeping. Which meant my mom didn't get much sleep either.

I tried to put that out of my mind as much as I could because I knew all my kids were in good hands. I did send Elliott a picture of me on my mom's phone just so he wouldn't forget who I was. 

So now that I've conquered my first get-a-way I'm ready for more. Who wants to go on a trip???

Far Far Away -- Atlanta

Our little family of 5 loaded up in our "way cool" minivan and headed for a little road trip down to Atlanta. But of course we had to shine up our ride before we headed out.

While it's nice to have a clean car, the more important motive behind this task was to wear the boys out so they'd sleep well for the big drive. It worked! We drove overnight and all 3 kids did awesome. Elliott slept almost the entire way. X and Wes slept, ate snacks, or watched movies.

The consequence of driving overnight is that we arrived in town around 6am. Way to early to show up at the relatives house. So we introduced the boys to the WAFFLE HOUSE and went to a nearby playground to ride bikes.

We all had a great time visiting with Donna, Chuck, and Adam. The boys loved their pool and spent hours out there. They also loved chasing the dog, Tallulah, around the house. Poor dog.

While there we hit up our usual favorite place, the Atlanta Children's Museum. It was Elliott's first visit and he jumped right in!

 All that grocery shopping wore him out so he decided to take a nap on Walter while the older boys made some sand creations and painted.

Within walking distance from the museum are the Centennial Park Fountains. It was a perfect day to splash around so that's exactly what we did!

The rest of the pictures from our trip are apparently on Walter's and Donna's cameras. So, sorry -- pictures end here until I can get those others downloaded to me.

While in town we visited my cousin Adam's new office of Mowgli Games. They just created the SONGSTER game on Facebook and it's a hit! We are super excited for Adam. The boys each created their own song with a little help from "Uncle Cuzzie", and named them appropriately for their favorite colors: "green song" and "red song". 

We had a fun visit and now the boys ask almost daily when we are going back. They know it's "far far away" but still don't understand why we can't "just go there" whenever they feel like it.